Food& Healthstuffs

Check out my Etsy and get some goodies of your own!


AVOCADO BREAKFAST SALAD

COCONUT CREAM PIE LARABARS

CROCKPOT GREEK YOGURT

CROCKPOT KALUA PIG

CROCKPOT "ROTISSERIE" CHICKEN

EASY STOVETOP GRANOLA

GRAIN FREE COOKIES

GRAIN FREE ENGLISH MUFFIN

SEA SALT CARAMEL COFFEE

SPICY BLACK BEAN AND AVOCADO DIP 

SPICY BLACK BEAN BURGERS

JUNE 26, 2012

Making bread crumbs& stuffing jalapenos

I love jalapeno poppers and all things jalapeno. However, jalapeno poppers are 'spansive. And bad for you, and most importantly no pizza places deliver to my house. So what's a girl to do? Make her own. And share it with the world. I was inspired by this recipe here, but I found you get yummy results with about a 1/3 of the ingredients.

Step 1: Make bread crumbs out of nasty ass bread that you already made.

You'll need:
Really gross bread (or really good bread, to each their own)

1. Preheat your oven to 350F
2. Lay slices of bread on a cookie sheet, and place in oven for approx 20 mins (depending on how much bread you have)
3. Remove bread from oven, is it crusty? Good. Cool slightly.

4. Food process/magic bullet/blender (whatever) until it is nice and crumby. Ta-da.

If you have more than you're going to use in about a week, freeze the extra.

Now, on to the important/delicious stuff.

You'll need:
12 jalapenos
2 oz cream cheese (room temperature)
1/2 cup mozzarella cheese
cilantro
bread crumbs

1. Leave your oven on from your bread crumb making extravaganza. Slice the tops off your jalapenos, slice down the middle and remove the membranes and the seeds (or leave a little if you like it spicy)

2. Mix together your cream cheese, mozzarella and cilantro. Get to stuffin' those peppers.

3. Roll the cheesy side of the peppers in the bread crumbs. 

4. Lay jalapeno skin side down on a baking sheet and bake 15-20 mins

5. Dip in ranch dressing and stuff your face.

.

What delicious snack food is your go to?

JUNE 8, 2012

Twice Baked Cauliflower.
Or once boiled, once baked cauliflower. Or two times cooked cauliflower. Or just yummy, cheesy, vegetable-y stuff. You choose.

This is a great potato substitute, or veggie side dish choice for those adults in your home who choose to act like children and refuse vegetables. Not naming names, Josh. I adapted the original tutorial from Kalyn's Kitchen.

You'll need

One head of cauliflower
2 oz neufchatel cheese
1/4 cup plain greek yogurt
3 green onion sprouts
3 oz cubed cheddar cheese
black pepper

1. Bring a pot of water to boil. Chop your cauliflower into small pieces. Boil your cauliflower in the water until soft enough to mash (about 10 minutes)

2. When the cauliflower is soft, drain. Mash the cauliflower in your pot (free of water).

3. Transfer your cauliflower to a baking dish you have sprayed with cooking spray. Mix with desired amount of black pepper, neufchatel, greek yogurt, green onions and 2 oz of the cubed cheddar.

4. Top dish with the remaining 1 oz of cheese.

Excuse the picture. My camera randomly decided it wasn't going to flash for about 10 minutes.

5. Bake at 350F for about 30 minutes. I left the top off so it was nice and brown.

 

 

JUNE 2, 2012

 

So many desperate yummy snacks to be discovered when you're not spending extra money on junk. I wanted something salty sweet on this late night so I decided Cinnamon Sugar Corn!
I popped some SmartBalance popcorn. Which FYI needs something on it if you don't like the taste of warm, stale cardboard. Melted 1 tbsp of margarine, mixed in 2 tsp cinnamon, individual packet of Stevia. I drizzled the margarine mixture over the popped corn, put the top on the bowl and shook it up. YUM YUM! Only about 150 calories per serving too.

MAY 29, 2012

Who loves Starbucks frappuccinos?
Put ya hands in the air, and wave 'em like you just don't care!!
Me too. But they have approximately a million calories and a whole lotta dairy (I'm lactose intolerant) soo I've been pinning a lot lately& decided to make my own this weekend. I didn't follow any exact recipe so I'll just show& tell what I did. First, you need

Blender/food processor/Magic Bullet
Coffee (cooled off, I just used left over from the previous day)
Crushed ice
Chocolate syrup
Milk (lactaid in my case)
Half& half
Whipped cream

1. I filled the cup to our Magic Bullet completely full of ice (approx 8 ozs of crushed ice)
2. I topped about 2 tbsp of chocolate syrup on the ice. It's better on top (no pun intended) because then all the chocolate doesn't sink to the bottom before you get a chance to drink it.
3. I then poured milk about half way up the cup (we'll say 3 oz)
4. I then poured about 2 tbsp of half&half into the cup just for some extra creaminess.
5. I filled the rest of the cup with black coffee (probably 2 oz)
6. I blended everything in the Magic Bullet for about 20 seconds, just enough to combine everything.
7. Top it with whipped cream, ta da!

I'd also like to share my breakfast burrito recipe!

Ingredients:

Whole wheat tortillas

Eggs for each person (I used 5 because, Josh eats 3 eggs at a time and I eat 1. So I had enough leftover for my next breakfast)

Cheese/meat/veggies of your choice

Olive oil

1. Preheat your oven/toaster oven to warm your tortillas. We like ours really crispy, so I put them in before I started cooking anything else.

2. Put your stove on medium to start warming the oil. Chop your veggies (I only used a green pepper but tomatoes, onions, mushrooms, spinach are all good for breakfast burritos). Saute your veggies& meat. I always have leftover sliced steak in the freezer (for some reason I can never finish the last like 7 bites of a steak so I freeze it for later)

3. Once your veggies are to the tender/crispiness you prefer, start adding the eggs. Scramble them as you add them to the pan.

4. Once your eggs are almost completely done, start adding the cheese. I just cut the cheese into small cubes because I hate washing the cheese grater. l-a-z-y.

5. Once your cheese is melted, take it off the eye and stuff your tortilla.

So you ask, who doesn't know who to scramble eggs? I answer, I honestly don't know. This is mere inspiration for what to do with leftovers when it's 6am.

MAY 22, 2012

I would love to share my favorite meal inspiration blogs, and how I plan our weekly meals.

First, I love Stephanie Brandt Cornais at Mama and Baby Love. Her take on freezer, slow cooker meals is pure genius. My crockpot and I are BFF's so she is just making my life heaven with her ideas. You'll probably never see me copy a meal to the 't' (because I'm no lover of measuring cups or precision) but she is definitely a fairy godmother of meal ideas. I also look to her for health tips because I love all natural solutions to common medical needs. She is the reason I'm currently taking Cod Liver Oil, but thas a whole 'notha post for a whole 'notha day.

Second, Sarah Cook at Frugal by Choice, Cheap by Necessity. She is great for how-to's. As in how to make water kefir soda, how to make cottage cheese and how to make/can applesauce. She is trying to feed her family on a budget, and I can totally relate. Earlier this year, Josh took about a 65% paycut from what he was previously making and that seriously changed my former $500/month grocery budget. That was when couponing began for me. Plus, she is just plain ol' hilarious and funny is numero uno in my book of necessary traits.

My last ladylove is Rose at The Londoner. When I found her post about Dairy Free Chocolate Ice-Cream I knew it was meant to be. For the time period that is approximately my whole life, I have been chopping up, freezing& grinding up bananas for a ice-cream like treat. Mostly, because I am lactose-intolerant (like seriously intolerant, but for whatever reason I am a lover of all things dairy based hahahaha). She's really great at simplifying what seem like daring recipes. I can appreciate that.

Now that I have shared all those that inspire our dinners (snacks, etc), let me inspire your meals!

So, mostly I plan our meals by checking out our pantries/freezer/produce drawer and looking at what is on the verge of expiring. Because I procrastinate like that, got a prollem? Fruit is much more exciting to me when there's a lil mold on half (moldy half goes to compost pile btw). So anywho, this week we have asparagus that is about a week old, a whole lotta black beans (I always forget I have them& then buy a million more cans when I go to the grocery store), a half eaten package of bacon, a whole lotta boxed potatoes (a la couponing), and some Jarlsberg cheese that has got to go. So watch me while I put all that randomness into my mindbox, and spit out some magic!

Monday: Josh must salvage whatever he can while I attend my weekly Mary Kay partayy

Tuesday: Chicken cordon bleu inspired potatoe casserole with bacon wrapped asparagus

Wednesday: Country Living inspired Spring Onion Soup with Jalapeno popovers

Thursday: Mama and Baby Love inspired Italian beef over pasta

Friday: Spoon Fork Bacon inspired Spicy black bean burgers& zucchini fries

Saturday/Sunday: Thinking that far in advance is hazardous to my health

See how my mindbox (aka Pinterest) did that?

For the whole week, I spent $11 on 2 lbs of strawberries for our regularly scheduled snackings, about 3 lbs of zucchini (which I will continue to use into next week), and a bag of russet potatoes all at Wegman's near my job. They have much better produce than the podunk Food Lion near my house.


Happy eatin!